THE NHS only avoided using breast implants that contained potentially cancerous industrial-grade silicon by chance, the Health Secretary said today.

Nicola Sturgeon told Holyrood's Health Committee that NHS boards were free to buy implants manufactured by the now-closed French company Poly Implant Prothese (PiP), which are filled with non-medical grade silicone and are the subject of "health concerns about high rates of implant rupture and cancer".

Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the organisation representing private sector hospitals that did use PiP implants, some of whom are charging £2500 to replace them, said the health scare has been "hyped up by the media".

She also said she could not give an assurance that private hospitals would put the physical and mental health of women first, and then "worry later in terms of who picks up that bill".

Ms Sturgeon confirmed that "no patients in Scotland were given PiP implants on the NHS".

Labour MSP Dr Richard Simpson, a former GP, said: "I wonder if you can tell me if that was by chance, or a specific decision, or were there concerns about this?"

Ms Sturgeon said: "As far as I can tell it was more chance than anything else. Obviously these decisions are down to individual health boards that are carrying out these procedures as to what implants to procure.

"What I can certainly say is that it wasn't as a result of any guidance or any instruction given to health boards."

Chief Medical Officer Sir Harry Burns also suggested that if the NHS had unilaterally refused to use the implants it could have faced a legal challenge by the manufacturers.

He said: "When the PiP implants were first registered, apparently, we are told, they were approved with medical grade silicone in them. That changed through a difference of process.

"I think it would be difficult legally for us to decide to stand up and say we're not going to use that on the basis of our testing when it has been approved elsewhere in the EU. That would certainly be up for legal challenge by the manufacturers.

"But also technically it would be very difficult for us to do that. It would mean setting up a very big, complex system for testing all the different products that came into Scotland, and it would be a very unusual case where we would turn round and say that the process that European regulatory authorities had gone through was not up to scratch.

"In this case, we would have tested PiP implants when they first came into Scotland, but wouldn't have seen the undeclared change in the product that the manufacturers produced, which I now understand is the subject of significant legal action."